


Team Periwinkle

by Anonymous



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Addiction, Canon - Comics, F/M, Missing Scene, Season/Series 01, Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-22
Updated: 2015-08-22
Packaged: 2018-04-12 23:15:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4498389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alison and Donnie's stay at the Oceanside Couples Togetherness Retreat doesn't go as planned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Team Periwinkle

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Miss_M](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_M/gifts).



> Based on the comic _Orphan Black: Alison,_ written by John Fawcett, Graeme Mason, and Jody Houser. Some dialogue from the comic is also used in this fic. I don't own said dialogue.

The Oceanside Couples Togetherness Retreat was a compromise, somewhat. If Donnie would go to this retreat, located south of Jacksonville, Florida, to repair their relationship, Alison would stop drinking. And it allowed Alison to not think about anything dealing with the clones. In fact, she decided that "clone" was a dirty word for this trip. She referred to the clones as "c-words" instead. Besides, Cosima was the only person who knew about the retreat. Alison didn't want to think about Cosima's face. It reminded her of, well, c-words.

But Alison was still terrified about who her monitor was. She packed a list of suspects along with prescription medication and various small bottles of gin and vodka under her clothes in her checked luggage. She wasn't planning on using it, but she wanted to have those things there, just in case her anxieties flared up.

 

The journey to the retreat--from Toronto to Atlanta, from Atlanta to Jacksonville, Florida, and then from the Jacksonville airport to the resort, south of Jacksonville--lured Alison into a state of false security. She forgot she was still in search of her monitor, unaware he was her husband. And, of course, she had forgotten about c-words.

Mimi, the retreat's resident advisor, mentioned that drugs and alcohol weren't allowed at the retreat shortly after they arrived. It was something Alison forgot after she started packing for the trip, something that slipped her mind immediately after Mimi handed Donnie and her their periwinkle outfits for the resort. The resort assigned colors to each couple and called them "teams." Alison and Donnie were Team Periwinkle.

Of course Alison was stunned when Donnie went through her carry-on without warning in their room. Crumb-cakes, she thought, remembering the pills and the bottles of alcohol hidden under her clothes. 

Alison ran to her carry-on and blocked Donnie from it. "Don't touch that!"

Donnie threw up his hands. "I was just trying to help."

"I can get it myself."

Alison's arm hit her carry-on. She accidentally revealed her supply of pills and alcohol to Donnie.

"I can see that this is going to be a long week."

"I thought I would need those for emergencies."

"What emergencies? What kind of emergency would you need gin for?"

"Mouthwash."

"You could've went to a drug store before we left to get a bottle of travel-sized mouthwash. You could've bought a bottle at one of the airports. You didn't need to bring alcohol to a drug-free facility, Alison."

"I wanted to save my money for emergencies."

Donnie stopped arguing with Alison. He knew trying to get her to give up her alcohol would be an uphill battle. So he tried another method.

 

Despite his hatred of Leekie, Donnie was intimidated by him. After hearing about what happened at the housewarming party, Leekie told Donnie to keep Alison away from drugs and alcohol as much as possible. Donnie tried doing just that--but not for Leekie, for Alison. While Alison went to talk to Mimi about some resort-related things, Donnie grabbed the trash bag from their room. He grabbed the pills and the alcohol bottles and threw them in the bag.

Donnie remembered there was a diner about a quarter of a mile west of the resort. He hoped to sneak out of the resort, throw the pills and alcohol in the trash can in front of the diner, and return to the room as if nothing had happened. And he was confident someone would replace the bag with another bag.

As soon as Donnie tried to leave the room, he saw Mimi and Alison talking at the end of their hall. "Oh fudge," he whispered.

He ducked back in the room, put the bag back in its can, and put the prescription pills and the alcohol back in Alison's carry-on.

Donnie was standing by the bed when Alison came back into the room. "Honey," she said, "I'd thought you'd be done unpacking by now."

"I needed to catch my breath...in the bathroom." He gulped.

Alison nodded. "That's very unusual, Donnie, but I hope you're okay."

Donnie groaned. He knew there was no way to stop Alison from getting a hold of her alcohol and pills now, not without getting caught by Alison, Mimi, or someone else at the resort.

 

Or maybe Alison had decided she would abstain and abide by the resort's "no drug" rule. To Donnie, it seemed like she was doing that.

Team Periwinkle went to group counseling. Alison was sober and the only thing that went wrong was Mimi not knowing that Donnie took Alison's last name. (Alison's parents thought "Chubbs" was a horrible last name for her. Donnie went along with it; he couldn't fight his in-laws over one last name.) The two of them met and interacted with other couples during mealtimes and a "treasure hunt" looking for the couple with the longest honeymoon, the most expensive wedding, and other trivial things.

The group horseback riding activity was when things started to fall apart. Alison had a plan in mind. She was going to ride beside Donnie and listen to Mimi talk about how the horse-riding activity promoted togetherness. But Alison was still haunted by what she did to Donnie in their basement. She was haunted by the contents of Donnie's special box and his confession about cheating with Ginny Nussbaum, an acquaintance from college. And she still didn't know who her monitor was.

Thinking all those dreadful thoughts was the moment Alison decided she couldn't go through the activities sober anymore. She decided to take a vodka bottle with her on the horse-riding excursion.

Once the ride was all over, Alison took a chug of her vodka bottle. Alison didn't notice Donnie watching her outside the entrance to the stables. Donnie frowned and looked down at his feet. "Fiddlesticks," he whispered.

 

Another planned activity at the retreat was art therapy. The "teams" were asked to sit together and draw how they felt in their current family situation.

While Alison and Donnie were drawing at their table, Donnie got a call on his cell phone. Leekie had told him to carry it around in case Leekie needed to contact Donnie and vice versa. Unfortunately for Donnie, art therapy was one of those times.

When Donnie felt the phone vibrate in his pants, he shot out of his chair.

Alison looked up at Donnie. "Donnie, what's wrong?"

"I gotta go to the bathroom."

"The bathroom? Right now?"

Donnie grabbed his butt. "I think it's something I ate." And with that, Donnie ran out of the art room.

Donnie hid behind a plant in the hallway near the art room and talked to Leekie. "Donnie!" Leekie exclaimed. "You said you'd check in with me while you two were on your little drug and alcohol-free vacation."

"Now is not a good time, Doctor Leekie." Donnie whispered into the mouthpiece of the cell phone.

"How is Alison?"

"I'm pretty sure she's ignoring the 'no alcohol' rule. She seemed more stable..."

"How is Alison drinking at this alcohol-free retreat?"

"She put pills and alcohol in her checked luggage without me knowing until we got here."

"Find a way to get her away from the alcohol and pills."

"I tried. I don't want to be busted and get kicked out of the retreat--"

"Just find a way, Donnie." Leekie hung up.

When Donnie returned to the art room, he noticed Alison's drawing. There was a stick figure, drawn in a light purplish color, in front of cartoon eyes and eyebrows drawn in yellowish and reddish colors. Donnie didn't know what to make of the picture.

 

The Oceanside Couples Togetherness Retreat also had an archery range. Teams were to take turns shooting arrows at targets while blindfolded. Alison decided to shoot first for Team Periwinkle, even though she was drunk. She didn't want to be at the archery range, but she decided to keep up appearances for Donnie and the retreat's sake.

Donnie helped Alison with loading and aiming the bow and arrow. When she was in position, Donnie said "Okay, Ali, the target is on your left."

As Alison was getting ready to shoot, she aimed right, and right at the head of Sandra Cole of Team Peach.

"No, no, your other left."

Alison moved left, but now she was pointing at the head of Teresa Pearson of Team Vermillion. Donnie had to tackle her before she could get off a shot.

Mimi saw Donnie tackle Alison to the ground. She ran to Donnie and Alison. "What's going on here?"

"Ali was about to take out Teresa by accident," Donnie said.

Alison took off her blindfold. "I don't feel too good."

"Would you like to take a break and drink some water, Alison?"

Alison squinted her eyes. "Yes."

"You two are excused from this exercise. And Donnie? Thank you for saving Teresa's life."

"You're welcome."

Later, while Donnie went out in search of water and the other couples were still practicing archery, Alison hid behind what once was Team Periwinkle's target, drinking water laced with gin.

 

The last thing Alison and Donnie did together at the retreat was yoga. It wasn't the last thing scheduled on the retreat's schedule.

Alison couldn't go without a drink before yoga. So she drank down the contents of one of her spirit bottles just before practice.

Since many of the retreat's participants were new to yoga, the yoga instructor in charge of the class allowed the teams to practice yoga side by side with each other. Advanced couples positions like the seated knee bend and the revolved head-of-the-knee pose were off the agenda.

Yoga practice this day consisted of poses that would increase flexibility and strength. After starting in easy and mountain poses, the yoga instructor led the class into downward-facing dog pose, cat pose, and all the warrior poses. Instead of moving gracefully through the yoga positions, Alison was wobbling through every pose.

The yoga instructor lead the teams into the downward-facing dog pose. The position doesn't make most people sick. But for Alison, who drank out of one of her small spirit bottles before going to yoga practice, downward-facing dog was making her feel sick.

Once she tumbled and fell over Donnie, she knew she would have to excuse herself from yoga. She ran back into her room without changing out of her exercise clothes. It was, possibly, her only chance to talk to Cosima. Alison still needed to figure out who her monitor was, and Cosima could help her. And if her monitor wasn't Donnie, then her monitor had to be Aynsley. Right?

 

Donnie changed out of his exercise clothes and ran back to his room. He knocked on the door. When Alison opened the door for him, he had no idea why she was holding a pink cell phone.

Alison sat on the bed as Donnie paced back and forth in their room. His hands were flailing in the air. "You couldn't stop drinking and taking your pills for one week! So much for 'fixing us,' huh?"

Alison looked down on the floor. "It's not like that," she whispered.

"You were completely drunk, Ali. Everyone could see it. What if the kids saw you like this? How can I even trust that you'd--"

"So now you don't trust me around our kids, Donnie?"

"No, no, I didn't say--"

Alison went to the room's closet. She started throwing her clothes onto the bed. "Maybe the one I shouldn't be around is you."

"What does that even mean?"

Alison opened her luggage, which was in a luggage holder. She put all her clothes in her luggage as Donnie sat on the bed. "It means I'm leaving. This retreat was clearly a failure. And maybe this marriage was, too." 

Alison zipped up her luggage and left their room before Donnie could try to stop her. 

Distraught, Donnie called Leekie to tell him the sociology project he thought he enrolled in was off because Alison was going to leave him. To Donnie's surprise, Leekie told Donnie to get Alison back, by all means. It wasn't because Leekie was sentimental. It was because Leekie wanted to observe her as part of his project. It had been years since Donnie had opted into this sociology project, and Leekie was still holding things back from Donnie.

If Donnie knew about what being a monitor entailed--watching Dyad perform tests on Alison while she was unconscious, only to see Dyad kick him out of said testing, hearing Leekie bark at him to get Alison back only because of Leekie's interest in Alison--he would've told Doctor Leekie where to stick that contract when Alison and he were still in college.

For the moment, Donnie decided to do anything to get Alison back. Not because Leekie told him to, but because he loved her. And he thought that maybe, just maybe, an intervention could be a start. Maybe Aynsley could help him.

 

The intervention came and went. But instead of Alison's friends helping her to get off drugs and alcohol, Aynsley ended up dead. Alison thought her monitor was dead. Her actual monitor, Donnie, was horrified at the intervention itself. 

"It's okay, Donnie. Everything's going to be okay. I'll stop drinking and taking pills, and everything's going to go back to normal."

Nothing in Alison and Donnie's lives would ever be the same again. But there still was a chance for the two of them, if only they would take it.


End file.
